- Some kind of archived items or past purchases menu choice. I still have not figured out how to get at my past purchases which I removed from my 'I'm reading' but they are still in my account. Even from my computer, I can't figure it out.

It's not really obvious. What you need to do is go into your account on your computer, tick the box beside the book you want back onto your Kobo in your Purchased tab, click the BOOKMARK button at the top of the list, and on your next sync it should sync back onto your Kobo.